CSU

Boise State secondary carries a primary focus

Broncos expect a return to form in 2014

By Mike Brohard

Sports Editor

Posted:
07/28/2014 06:42:14 PM MDT

Boise State's Donte Deayon steps in front of Colorado State's Joe Hansley to intercept a pass last year, one of six picks he had a season ago. The Broncos secondary expects a return to form this season after allowing 249.2 yards passing per game in 2013. (Karl Gehring / The Denver Post)

5 Position Groups to watch

1. Utah State's linebackers — There may not be a better collection of talent at a position in the league. Zach Vigil and Kyler Fackrell are preseason all-conference picks, and Nick Vigil returns to the 3-4 set for a unit that allowed just 17.1 points per game.

2. Nevada defensive line — Led by all-conference pick Brock Hekking, the group has combined for 84 career starts, though it will operate under a new defensive coordinator.

3. Fresno State offensive line — Though the Bulldogs have yet to decide on a quarterback, whoever wins the job should expect to be protected with three returning starters from a group that allowed just 11 sacks in 2013.

4. UNLV receivers — Devante Davis (87 catches, 1,290 yards, 14 TDs) is a good place to start, but the Rebels have their top three receivers back, all of whom averaged better than 11 yards per catch. The more heat they take of Davis, the more dangerous he becomes.

Perspective and expectations dictate the bottom line.

Boise State finished 8-5 last season, including a 38-23 loss to Oregon State in the Hawaii Bowl. While posting a winning mark and reaching the postseason meets the standards of many programs in the nation, that's not the case for the Broncos, nor will it change with Bryan Harsin at the top of the coaching tree.

Advertisement

In the process of finding areas to improve, the Boise State secondary is garnering a fair bit of attention, something no secondary relishes. The Broncos finished the season ranked 73rd in the nation in pass efficiency and allowed 249.2 yards per game via the pass, a performance far from the expected norm.

What the group does have is experience, and obviously people believe there is talent in the back end as both safety Jeremy Ioane and cornerback Donte Deayon were selected as preseason all-Mountain West performers.

"The year they had last year, statistically, was not a great year in pass defense," said Harsin, who was the head coach at Arkansas State at the time. "Naturally, the thing to do is to come back stronger, and I hope that shows up."

When he came back to the program, Harsin also brought with him assistant coach Julius Brown. He will guide the secondary, and along with defensive coordinator Marcel Yates, Harsin said he's already seen gains made in the unit through working with those two coaches.

Deayon led the team with six interceptions last year, and Ioane finished with 59 tackles. The group also brings back returning starters in Darian Thompson (four interceptions) and Bryan Douglas (four interceptions), with Corey Bell, who started at a rover spot but is considered more of a nickel, also returns to the fold.

Bell admits there were highs and lows, but it's the lows he said they are using as a learning tool.

"I think you learn from both of them," said Bell, who was second on the team with 76 tackles. "Those rough patches give you that feeling inside that you know what it feels like that you don't want to feel again. I think you also learn things from making mistakes. You definitely learn what works and doesn't work, and the good patches, that's what you kind of cling on to. What do we do differently to cause this outcome, what was it we did that gave us this result. You can definitely learn from both of them. I like to focus on positive stuff, because it usually helps bring you up."

Douglas is being pushed to keep his job by sophomore Jonathan Moxey and newcomer Dylan Sumner-Gardner made some noise in the spring and shot up into the two-deep chart as a true freshman.

By definition, a defensive back needs to have thick skin, because mistakes made at the position are there for all to see. But completely wiping it clean from the mind doesn't do any good either, and Harsin expects his secondary to view last year from both directions.

"You need to have a short memory, too, but you need to go back and know why this happened, know why you made that mistake or whatever the technique was so you don't have it happen again," he said. "Our goal is to always make new mistakes."

So the Broncos' secondary would prefer to view the 2013 performance as a mistake not to be repeated. Despite finishing second to Utah State in the Mountain Division and missing out on the first MW championship game, BSU has been picked to be the class of the division this time around.

To do that, the last line of defense accepts the challenge of returning to form, when the defense as a whole was finishing in the top 20 in the nation.

"I think we can play with the best DBs in the Mountain West," Bell said. "That's always been a goal of ours is to be the best DB crew in the Mountain West. That's really what the goal has been the whole time, to prove ourselves and be one of the best. We had a little bit of a slip last year obviously, but you look at all the DBs from BSU who have gone on and played, it's easy to tell that group has been a productive group. You want to be able to continue that."